PFF: Cowboys' Jourdan Lewis debuts in Rookie of Year Tracker

PFF: Cowboys' Jourdan Lewis debuts in Rookie of Year Tracker

After the massive success of their 2016 draft class, the Cowboys were hoping 2017 would bring more of the same, but to the defensive side of the ball.

While their first round pick, Taco Charlton, has struggled to make an impact on the defensive line and their second round pick, Chidobe Awuzie, has been battling a hamstring injury for the last month or so, they seem to have found something in third round selection Jourdan Lewis.

Lewis, a cornerback out of the University of Michigan, was dealing with hamstring issues as well that forced him to miss most of the team’s offseason program and the whole preseason. He was forced into action last week against Denver due to a slew of injuries in the secondary, and ended up getting roasted on a pair of touchdown passes.

Other than those two plays, however, he’s been pretty darn good. And after last week’s performance, he’s featured as one of Pro Football Focus‘ top 10 rookies on their Rookie of the Year Performance Tracker.

Through all his struggles in his first NFL game against Denver, Lewis was able to get his first career interception in the game and showed promise in an area that few Dallas corners have been able to master: open field tackling. Against Arizona on Monday night, he confirmed that strength when he had six solo tackles (for the second straight week) and added a few impressive pass breakups as well.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, Lewis tweaked his hamstring again at the end of the game against the Cardinals. While the injury doesn’t appear to be serious, the team will want to bring him along slowly as they can’t really afford to lose their best cornerback after only two weeks.